Besieged by the related problems of soaring Medicaid and private health-insurance costs, a growing number of states are enacting innovative programs to curb expenses, improve services and expand access to affordable health care. Some of the nation's leading health policy experts will gather at an Empire Center policy forum in Albany on Sept. 26 to share insights and ideas that might offer models for New York State.

"As we look ahead to the approaching change in leadership at the highest levels of New York State government, this is a good time to assess what other states might teach us about improving health care," said E.J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

The half-day forum, "Health Policy Issues for New York," will be held in the new Key Cultural Center at the Albany Institute of History and Art, 125 Washington Avenue. It will run from 9 a.m. through lunch. A full agenda and complete list of experts appearing can be found here.

Topics of forum-panel discussions will include the recently enacted Massachusetts health-insurance mandate. Other panel topics will include Medicaid reforms adopted in Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina and other states.

The keynote speaker will be David Gratzer, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and author of the new book, The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care (Encounter Books, October 2006). Gratzer, a physician in Canada, has researched and written widely on topics including Medicare and Medicaid, drug re-importation and FDA reform. Other speakers will include Florida State Rep. Gayle Harrell, who played a leading role in the passage of a Medicaid-reform program in the Sunshine State.

The Empire Center is a project of the Manhattan Institute, one of the nation's leading non-profit, non-partisan think tanks.

For further information on the policy forum, contact the Empire Center's Kathryn McCall at 518-434-3100.